Due Process

6000 “DUE PROCESS” STRUCTURES FOR THE ARCHDIOCESE OF SAN FRANCISCO: #

6100 THE COUNCIL OF CONCILIATION, AND THE BOARD OF ARBITRATION. #

6110 INTRODUCTION #

In 1970 the Senate of Priests proposed and the Archbishop established for the Archdiocese of San Francisco a Council of Conciliation and a Board of Arbitration. The composition, purpose and function of these structures are those suggested in the Ad Hoc Committee on Due Process Report of the Canon Law Society of America (1969) pages 13 – 25, amended in part by the Priests’ Senate (included below) and amended also by the Holy Father on October 30, 1971, cfr. Canon Law Digest, vii, pp. 899-900). These structures provide a procedure for the resolution of disputes in administrative areas of church governance in which rights of persons are respected and protected.
The principles underlying these structures are expressed in the same report of the Canon Law Society of America:
In accordance with the authentic teaching of the Catholic Church …all persons in the Church are fundamentally equal in regard to their common rights and freedom,
among which are:
The right and freedom to hear the Word of God and to participate in the sacramental and liturgical life of the Church;
The right and freedom to exercise the apostolate and share in the mission of the Church;
The right and freedom to speak and be heard and to receive objective information regarding the pastoral needs and affairs of the Church;
The right to education, to freedom of inquiry and to freedom of expression in the sacred sciences;
The right to free assembly and association in the Church;
And such inviolable and universal rights of the human person as the right to the protection of one’s reputation, to respect of one’s person, to activity in accord with the upright norm of one’s conscience, to protection of privacy.

The dignity of the human person, the principles of fundamental fairness, and the universally applicable presumption of freedom require that no member of the Church arbitrarily be deprived of the exercise of any right of office.
Notion of Due Process
The adequate protection of human rights and freedoms is a matter of concern to all men of good will; the adequate protection of specifically ecclesial rights and freedoms has become a matter of increasing concern to all members of the Church.
Rights are protected in many ways. Indirectly, they are protected by education, growth of moral conscious-ness, development of character; directly, they are protected by law. Rights without legal safeguards, both preventive and by way of effective recourse, are often meaningless. It is the noblest service of law to afford effective safeguards for the protection of rights, and, where rights have been violated, to afford effective means for their prompt restoration.
The need for an effective way of protecting rights in the Church becomes obvious when one considers that the administrative areas within the Church have experienced the fastest rate of growth in recent years. The emergence of personnel boards, liturgical commissions, parish councils and similar bodies has increased the number of persons who exercise some measure of authority at different levels
of the Church’s structure.

6120 CONCILIATION #

The first structure for handling disputes is the process of conciliation. It is the heart of conciliation that
two disputants agree to engage the services of a third person or persons who will seek to bring them to agreement. The conciliator makes no decision, but simply offers assistance in an attempt to reconcile the disputing parties. Conciliation is the most distinctly Christian aspect of these due process structures. Christian notions of forgiveness, peacemaking and charity argue that the primary process for resolving disputes in the Church should involve conciliation of people rather than the assertion of legal rights.
The structure provided for conciliation is called the “Council of Conciliation.” Its composition and function as well as the manner of initiating conciliation and the procedures for such action are described below under the section “Process of Conciliation.”
For a list of the current members of the Council of Conciliation, please refer to “Members of Boards,” Series 8000 of this Handbook.

6130 ARBITRATION #

In most instances, the majority of controversies should be settled through conciliation. However, since this will not always be possible, a structure for arbitration
is provided called the “Board of Arbitration.” This Board is also described below under the section “Process of Arbitration.” Current members are also listed under series 8000 of this Handbook.
Arbitration is defined as the reference of a dispute, by voluntary agreement of the parties, to an impartial person or persons for determination on the basis of evidence and arguments presented by both parties, who agree in advance to accept the decision of the arbitrator as final and binding.

6140 RECOURSE TO CONCILIATION AND ARBITRATION #

Any person in conflict with any other person, group or institution exercising administrative authority in the Archdiocese may have recourse to the Council of Conciliation and the Board of Arbitration.

6150 AREAS OF CONCERN #

6151 These “due process” structures shall be offered:
6151.1 To reconcile disputants or arbitrate disputes between individual members of the Archdiocese or groups within the Archdiocese which concern an ecclesiastical matter;
6151.2 To reconcile disputants or arbitrate disputes between a person and a diocesan administrator or administrative body, where it is contended that the norms on the manner of imposing or declaring administrative and disciplinary sanctions have not been justly and equitably observed;
6151.3 To reconcile disputants or arbitrate disputes between administrative bodies of the Archdiocese which involve conflict of competency.

6152 However, the following shall not be subject to these structures:
6152.1 Criminal cases in the strict sense and administrative sanctions and disciplinary actions;
6152.2 Dissolutions of marriages;
6152.3 Matters pertaining to benefices when there is litigation about the title itself to a benefice unless the legitimate authorities sanction arbitration;
6152.4 Spiritual matters whenever the award requires payment by means of temporal goods.
Disputes involving temporal ecclesiastical goods or those things which, though annexed to the spiritual, can be dealt with apart from their spiritual aspect, may be settled through arbitration, but the formalities of law for the alienation of ecclesiastical property must be observed if the matter is of sufficient importance.

6200 PROCESS FOR CONCILIATION #

6210 ARTICLE I. ESTABLISHMENT #

6211 The Archdiocese of San Francisco shall set up a “Council of Conciliation,” composed as follows:
Two persons appointed by the Ordinary of the Archdiocese;
Two lay persons elected by the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council or in its absence the Senate of Priests;
One person elected by the Senate of Priests. 6212 The term of office shall be three years.
6213 These exceptions shall apply to the initial members of the Council:
The first appointee of the Ordinary shall have a term of three years.
The person receiving the largest vote from the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council shall have a term of two years.
The person elected by the Senate of Priests shall have a term of two years.

The second appointee of the Ordinary shall have a term of one year.
The person receiving the second largest vote from the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council shall have a term of one year.
6214 The Council shall elect its Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer.
6215 The Archdiocese shall reimburse the Council for its expenses upon presentation of a statement signed by the Chairman and Treasurer.
6216 The establishment of the Council, its purposes, the biographies of its members, and its rules of operation shall be announced by a letter from the Ordinary to the clergy and faithful of the Archdiocese and by appropriate publicity in the diocesan and secular press.

6220 ARTICLE II. STARTING THE PROCESS #

6221 Any person in conflict with the Ordinary of the diocese, an appointee of the Ordinary, a priest in the diocese, a Catholics college, hospital, or other charitable or educational institution in the diocese, a parish or a diocesan council,
a parish or diocesan school board, a Catholic cemetery organization or burial association, or any other person, group or insti